Eupheria
=Appearance= *'Physical Features': Euphe is roughly average height, thin, and -not- well preserved. A combination of being slow to rise from the grave and a general lack of care for herself since has resulted in a slew of areas where the skin has rotted, peeled, or worn away. Her blonde hair is often an unkempt mess, falling down her back in a tangled, dirty mass. She has retained both of her eyes, but they have grown a cataract type cover and, like other Forsaken, have a bright yellow glow. *'Clothing/Armor': Though she has recently been given several other things to wear, Euphe favors a dusty, purple robe. Regardless of what she is wearing, she will have the sleeves rolled up to get them out of the way, and it will, inevitably, bear a collection of odd stains. =Personality= Eupheria's sanity in her current state is debatable. Perhaps the experience of a slow, wretched death put her a bit off, maybe a piece of brain matter has rotted just a bit too much, but, whatever the reason, her behavior can be quite erratic. Though generally managing to function well enough, her attention span can be very short, she is sometimes very happy to talk to herself, or to a pet, ignoring those around her in the process, and often goes off on tangents simply due to losing the original subject in her train of thought. She is also a packrat. Euphe collects a little of everything, but pets and plant material are her primary focuses. Her humble dwelling is packed to the rafters with bottles, jars, bags, cages and perches. It is not unlikely that she has a sample of virtually every plant in Azeroth in her possession. Though things are carefully arranged and labeled, the sheer volume of it all leaves her frequently unable to find what she needs. Long without human, forsaken, or other such companionship, Euphe's pets provide the majority of her interaction. Her netherwhelp is her closest companion, going virtually everywhere with her. She is quite taken with the small dragon, and tends to be easily distracted by him. While not evil, per say, Eupheria often does the wrong things for the right reasons. Many of the worst things in her past have been done with the best of intentions. She never really has ill intent in even the most damaging of her actions. =History= Glorified Servitude In her youth, Eupheria was a devout follower of the Light. She elected to begin training to join the priesthood at a very young age, much to her parents' delight. Leaving behind her family and her home, Euphe traveled to Stormwind to study at the Cathedral of Light. Here she lived throughout her initial training, though the life of an acolyte was not what she had expected. The world of study and carefully guided training that Eupheria had envisioned was shattered upon her arrival at the Cathedral. She quickly learned that an acolyte's first set of skills were not to be the curing of maladies or the mending of small wounds, but rather the polishing of armor, the mopping of floors and the serving of food. Still, her devotion to the Light was strong and she felt that if this is where she must start, so be it. She did her chores dutifully and without question, and, much to her delight, it did not take long before she found herself refilling incense holders, replacing candles, and running small errands for the priests and paladins above her, rather than fetching water and killing rats. Though it might not seem like much improvement to an outsider, it made her visible to her superiors, a crucial step in her advancement. Though she continued life as a virtually untrained acolyte for several years, her persistence was eventually rewarded. A door was opened for her one day as she delivered a small package to an older priest who was fortifying an expeditionary force before their departure. The priest, a friendly older man, struck up a conversation with the quiet young woman, and, to her surprise, offered to give her a quick lesson in power words. Delighted, Euphe hung on his every word, and, showing a great aptitude for this use of the light, she was performing the task reliably, though with weaker results than her far more practiced elder, by the end of the lesson. It was with this one chance event that Eupheria's career as a priestess of the Light was launched. Training A seat at the clergy's table, rather than a chair in the kitchen, a small room shared with a single roommate, rather than a bunk with a small trunk at the foot of it in a long dormitory hall, and a clean, new robe, rather than a stained, threadbare piece that was long discarded by its original owner; all seem like simple things, but for Euphe, each of these were like soft, sweet dreams all suddenly, almost magically, brought to fruition. It took only days after initially meeting her first mentor that the dorm matron was dismissing her, sending her out with a sealed letter, directions to her new home, and a quick, joking comment about how they needed the bed. Her daily chores came to include her new skills. She, along with her roommate, a chubby girl from a rich family who she doubted had ever held the rank Euphe had lived at for so many years, were expected to attend to those that came to the Cathedral seeking only minor things. As such, the ragged robes she had long worn had to be replaced with something more appropriate for a priestess, though, admittedly, one of the lowest ranked in the city. It was also soon after this initial training that Eupheria was taught the basics of healing. Though it terrified her, she was, in fact, only taught the basics and expected to expand upon this skill on her own, atleast initially, by experimenting on those that came to the cathedral seeking healing. Luckily, for herself and her conscience, Eupheria discovered she held a great talent for healing, improving in this area twice as fast as in any other. Quickly drawing attention from her superiors, she began to find herself regularly visited by those that outranked her, many of the priesthood wishing to offer their two copper on how to properly heal. They showed her how to bandage wounds and set broken bones, how to prepare potions and elixirs to aid in the process, how to find and use various herbs that facilitate healing, as well as expanding upon use of the Light and combinations of these things. She graciously accepted their compliments, while taking note of their advice and finding practical application for it. Her reputation came to precede her, Stormwind locals often requesting her specifically when visiting the Cathedral. At age 25 it was plainly apparent that her one time mentors had come to see her as a colleague, and she was given her first assignment. Lordaeron An opening in the priesthood within Lordaeron that Eupheria was informed of, shortly after her 29th birthday, seemed to her to be a wonderful to get some travel in, as well as an opportunity to take a more clearly defined post. After a long boat trip, during which Euphe learned she was no sailor, and a short ride in the back of a wagon, the priestess found herself in a new city. Her new position, a mid level priestess who was to attend those that needed more advanced healing, specifically those that could not be brought to the Cathedral, allowed her to frequently explore the city and it's surroundings as she visited those in her care. Finding that a few of the plants she had learned to use to heal the wounded and ill were not native to her new home, Euphe began to gather bits of various flora she found when out and about. Performing small experiments, she initially tested on herself, but after once making herself violently ill with a viscous, purplish brew that she thought better of drinking after the fact, it became apparent that testing on something that she could heal herself should things go awry might be the wiser thing to do. Mice and rats were the first choice of subject, being readily available around the city. For some time, this worked well enough, but, as she became confident in the capabilities of her new potions it occurred to her that, to be sure of the dosage and the effectiveness on a human, she needed a better test subject. The answer was clear to her; she would test them on her charges. They were already unwell. All she would need to do is stay with each for a bit longer than normal and record the results, as well as repair the damage should something go wrong. Exiled Despite the best intentions and the utmost care and secrecy, one can only walk a path of research that borders on torture for so long before beginning to raise suspicions. Though her healing skills kept her from losing test subjects, a few began to question how a broken ankle could lead to a young man vomiting blood, or how an old woman seeming to be cured would quickly fall ill again with a different set of symptoms that were gone as fast as they appeared, and, most importantly, why such things only seemed to occur when Eupheria was the assigned healer. Still, the fact that each found themselves healthy again by her departure kept suspicions from becoming serious concerns. It was only after almost five years that she made a mistake. Her mistake was a farmer outside the city who had nearly cut his own hand off chopping wood. The father of six little girls, Eupheria had gone to the farm house only to be constantly bombarded by the little whelps. After some extensive work to attempt to reattach his hand and stop the bleeding, she quietly medicated him with a solution she had created to help the body regenerate blood faster. This potion, which she had only tested once, seemed perfect, and, in this situation, necessary. His cold flesh slowly began to warm, Euphe continually infusing him with the Light, until his cheeks grew rosey, his breathing strong, and his heartbeat regular. When he finally opened his eyes and was able to get up on the small bed and change his blood soaked clothes himself, Eupheria departed, leaving behind a happy family. She was in her own bed within the city that night, sleeping soundly, when his body temperature peaked and he began to cook from the inside out. To make matters worse for Eupheria, at the time she had given the potion to the poor, deceased farmer, the room she thought she had been alone with him in was, in fact, full of the prying eyes of six nosy, young girls who were more than happy to point small, chubby fingers. When the issue was raised with her, Eupheria tried her best to explain, outlining the entire situation, neatly landing herself locked in her chambers, accused of murder and dabbling in the dark arts, awaiting her fate. When she was brought her last meal, Euphe, feeling she had done nothing wrong, waited on the other side of the door for her jailer and hit him over the head with a stone she had pried loose from a wall. After dragging his body inside, she attempted to sneak out of the building before alarms were raised. Eupheria only got so far as the base of the staircase down the hall before she heard guards yelling. Luckily for her, her keeper had taken his time bringing up her dinner and the first thought among the guards was that she must already be outside. As the guards within the building scrambled to arm themselves, and those outside began to fan out and search the rest of the city, Euphe slipped into a back alley and down into the sewers below. She knew they would eventually check the sewers and most of the surrounding areas outside of the city, so she headed out of the area at top speed. Other than stopping shortly right outside the city to steal a horse grazing in a small pasture, she made a hasty retreat to the east, an area she knew to be under Lordaeron's rule, but still a place where no one would know her. She imagined they would expect her to head south, back towards Stormwind, but if the clergy had backed her execution in this kingdom, it would there as well. The only thing that made sense to her was to go somewhere and hide until she was forgotten. So she went into exile, living in a shack here or there for a time before moving on. She was free to experiment and, so long as she stayed a distance away from main towns and roads, she felt somewhat safe. Eventually, she settled in a small, abandoned hovel in the northwest of Silverpine Forest. Her appearance having become worn and weary from years on the run, it occurred to her that she had reached a time where it was unlikely anyone would recognize her, even if she did happen across an old colleague. Here she kept a small garden, enough to feed herself without often needing to go to town, and began to reflect on her life up to that point. She began to question the teachings of her fellow clergy. They had cast her out and sentenced her to death for her actions, yet her power over the Light was not gone. She could still heal, but if that was true, then perhaps the Light did not give these gifts to her at all. She began to see the Light, not with the reverence she had once had, but as a tool, a power to be controlled and twisted as needed, much like the arcane. The Plague Eupheria had the poor luck of making one of her few and infrequent ventures into a populated area as the Plague had just begun to spread through Lordaeron. In some ways she is lucky, because it is likely she would have, instead, been ripped apart by the flood of the Scourge had she not been infected. Still, she perished from the plague not long after, her hut becoming her grave. Her passing was a slow, terrible ordeal that she fought desperately though. She continually tried to heal the damage the plague wrecked upon her body until she simply had no energy left to fight it. It is unknown how long she lay rotting on the floor, but when she came to, she was laying against a tree, far from her small home, hearing the Dark Lady's call echo through her mind. Not as troubled as many by finding herself in a state of undeath, Euphe quickly adapted to her new "life", and, happily, to the social climate of the Undercity in which experimentation on the living was expected, even encouraged. Becoming quite comfortable with her state of existence, Euphe began to use the Undercity as a base of operations, from which she frequently set out to explore a world she now had a clean slate in, and all of time to see. Her resources were quickly expanded, as was her alchemical knowledge. After studying among others with similar interests, she discovered she was, in fact, quite adept at what she did. Comparing notes with others broadened her horizons considerably, as did simply having access to many things she had never dreamed of before. The Present In recent years, Eupheria has extended her wanderings. She calls a small shack home, though she is there infrequently and it's really more of a storage space. There is always work for a healer and alchemist to be found somewhere, particularly one who doesn't ask many questions, and Euphe seeks out those jobs. Her primary employment has been with House Emberfall, who provided her with both work space and steady pay, but she still operates mainly as a free agent, having never been put officially under contract with them. In her most recent days she has opened shop in the Lower City of Shattrath where, in response to a less than booming market for potions and elixirs, she has focused on selling her cooking to the less discriminating consumers.